The present invention relates to liquid-treating procedures such as the cooking or other treatment of liquids which has an effect of causing an unwanted and disadvantageous amount of foaming or frothing of the liquid.
More particularly, the present invention relates to and provides a process for destroying the foam particles as they arise to the surface of the liquid, thus permitting more rapid heating of the liquid without the disadvantages of the occurrence of undue foam.
Such disadvantages, which occur when the foam or froth accumulates to any significant amount are chiefly the happening of things such as boilover of the hot liquid and foam, i.e., a boiling so vigorous that portions of the accumulated foam rise over the top walls of the container and fall down onto the associated heating element.
Such boilover causes waste, danger, messiness, etc., as is so well known that most attendants of such procedures the world over surely try to avoid it by slowing down the heating.
Without attempting to assert any precise knowledge as to the scientific nature of details of boiling a liquid which tends to cause the disadvantageously undue amount of foaming or frothing upon heating, the inventor suggests that probably vigorous boilover occurs due to the accumulation of such a thick layer of foam or broth that it acts like an insulator, which although probably improving thermal efficiency by retaining the heat, the heat-retention is so much that the boiling occurs fast and so vigorously, and with hardly any warning to the attendant, that the foam or broth is propelled upwardly and over the container wall, in clumps or masses, perhaps due partly to the size of the bubbles arising to the top of the liquid and partly to the rapidly built-up thickness of the foam or froth covering the surface of the liquid.
Whether or not that explanation is fully and precisely accurate from a scientific standpoint, the problem itself is accurately stated and well-known, i.e., that the cooking or heating of many liquids causes a very disadvantageous boilover unless heated so slowly as to be wasteful of time and effort, and that the boilover is bothersome, messy, wasteful, causes odors, is dangerous, etc.